Our child is trained by an awesome trainer. She is great at what she does and has the records to prove it. Here is our issue and maybe it's a non-issue but it has us and other clients a little perturbed.
One of the trainers clients is a child, two years younger than mine, so she is 11. She is the newest one to our "family" and while we all love the child, we have an issue with the parents. The parents do not come to any of the shows, most of which are out of town and an entire weekend long ordeal. Everyone else who shows (there are several adults and 2 other kids) is there and takes part in making sure that the shows go smoothly. My husband and I are taking care of our childs needs (tacking up, uniform changes, grooming, putting in tails, making sure that our child knows patterns and when the next class is and what class we are currently on, etc.). All of our trainers other clients are trying to do the same thing. In the meantime, our trainer is busy parenting the parentless child and even when it comes to warming up and practicing, she has to focus more on this child because her parents are there to help. One particular show that we were at, my child missed a training class, because I had left the premises to go get some things that the entire crew needed. The class was missed because the trainer was practicing with the little girl, who had a class two classes after the one my child missed. While we are not trainers, my husband and I can watch our child practice and give some hints, but we can't tell her everything that she is doing wrong, that's her trainers job.
Herein lies the issue, our trainer is so worried about this child being on her own that she is detrimentally affecting the other clients, mainly the kids but even the few adults who show have said they made mistakes in classes because during practice they did the same thing and our trainer didn't correct them so they thought they were performing the moves correctly.
On top of ALL of this, it is unfair to the rest of the family who have to pay for the gas to get to the shows, all of the food (we keep it stocked in one of the trailers - the little girls parents don't offer to pay for anything, even if we all decide to go out to eat someone has to pay for her), hotels (not all of us have LQ trailers), and the trainers hotel. This little girl stays with our trainer alot too so our trainer is babysitting all weekend long. Although the adults understand it, the other children are getting very discouraged because they see our trainer spending literally night and day with this child and feel as if they are less important because of it.
Another concern is that this is an event in which their daughter could potentially be injured and NO ONE has power of attorney to make medical decisions for her. Her parents say "Oh, we gave the trainer an insurance card".
So essentially, other than her show fees, everyone else is absorbing the costs financially and in our show performances because of this one child's parents being absent. We have all said something to our trainer and she says she has told the parents (I personally have said something to the parents myself as we are casual friends outside of this) and the parents seem oblivious and say "Well, our old trainer did everything for us". Well, their old trainer only had one other client for a reason and it's because the old trainer is terrible. That's why they found a new trainer.
The trainer says that she feels bad for the little girl and even though she's spoken to the parents, she doesn't want them to take her from this child because they've bonded.
Are we all being too touchy or does our trainer need to step up and tell the parents that one of them MUST be present at ALL shows for the entirety of the show??? This way everyone is being treated equal and our trainer has more time to focus on her entire crew instead of one. Our child has told our trainer that she pays more attention to this one child and that the shows are always about this one little girl. We are seriously on the verge of taking our child and horses to another trainer and I know that others feel the same way about finding a new trainer.
Need serious feedback on this situation. It is at a point that a decision has to be made one way or another. We love our trainer and want to stay with her, but not at the detriment of our childs performance. We have entirely too much money invested to watch our child be thrown by the wayside in favor of another child, just because her parents can't be parents.
One of the trainers clients is a child, two years younger than mine, so she is 11. She is the newest one to our "family" and while we all love the child, we have an issue with the parents. The parents do not come to any of the shows, most of which are out of town and an entire weekend long ordeal. Everyone else who shows (there are several adults and 2 other kids) is there and takes part in making sure that the shows go smoothly. My husband and I are taking care of our childs needs (tacking up, uniform changes, grooming, putting in tails, making sure that our child knows patterns and when the next class is and what class we are currently on, etc.). All of our trainers other clients are trying to do the same thing. In the meantime, our trainer is busy parenting the parentless child and even when it comes to warming up and practicing, she has to focus more on this child because her parents are there to help. One particular show that we were at, my child missed a training class, because I had left the premises to go get some things that the entire crew needed. The class was missed because the trainer was practicing with the little girl, who had a class two classes after the one my child missed. While we are not trainers, my husband and I can watch our child practice and give some hints, but we can't tell her everything that she is doing wrong, that's her trainers job.
Herein lies the issue, our trainer is so worried about this child being on her own that she is detrimentally affecting the other clients, mainly the kids but even the few adults who show have said they made mistakes in classes because during practice they did the same thing and our trainer didn't correct them so they thought they were performing the moves correctly.
On top of ALL of this, it is unfair to the rest of the family who have to pay for the gas to get to the shows, all of the food (we keep it stocked in one of the trailers - the little girls parents don't offer to pay for anything, even if we all decide to go out to eat someone has to pay for her), hotels (not all of us have LQ trailers), and the trainers hotel. This little girl stays with our trainer alot too so our trainer is babysitting all weekend long. Although the adults understand it, the other children are getting very discouraged because they see our trainer spending literally night and day with this child and feel as if they are less important because of it.
Another concern is that this is an event in which their daughter could potentially be injured and NO ONE has power of attorney to make medical decisions for her. Her parents say "Oh, we gave the trainer an insurance card".
So essentially, other than her show fees, everyone else is absorbing the costs financially and in our show performances because of this one child's parents being absent. We have all said something to our trainer and she says she has told the parents (I personally have said something to the parents myself as we are casual friends outside of this) and the parents seem oblivious and say "Well, our old trainer did everything for us". Well, their old trainer only had one other client for a reason and it's because the old trainer is terrible. That's why they found a new trainer.
The trainer says that she feels bad for the little girl and even though she's spoken to the parents, she doesn't want them to take her from this child because they've bonded.
Are we all being too touchy or does our trainer need to step up and tell the parents that one of them MUST be present at ALL shows for the entirety of the show??? This way everyone is being treated equal and our trainer has more time to focus on her entire crew instead of one. Our child has told our trainer that she pays more attention to this one child and that the shows are always about this one little girl. We are seriously on the verge of taking our child and horses to another trainer and I know that others feel the same way about finding a new trainer.
Need serious feedback on this situation. It is at a point that a decision has to be made one way or another. We love our trainer and want to stay with her, but not at the detriment of our childs performance. We have entirely too much money invested to watch our child be thrown by the wayside in favor of another child, just because her parents can't be parents.